_Sean Broderick

Articles

FAA’s Aviation Safety branch is in a sequestration-driven staffing “free fall” and expects to continue shrinking into next year, FAA Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety John Hickey tells MRO Americas attendees. The impact will be felt most in non-safety sensitive areas, like achieving new certifications, and it’s going to be “significant,” Hickey warns.

The U.S. Transportation Department’s (DOT’s) fiscal 2014 budget request earmarks $225 million in off-budget money for a new-generation air traffic control facility in New York that would consolidate the New York Center and New York terminal radar approach control facilities.

The plan to build a New York Integrated Control Facility (ICF)—a new type of center that serves both en route and terminal airspace—is not new. But the budgetary commitment is arguably the most significant signal yet that the FAA is ready to proceed with the project.

The FAA’S $928 million in proposed fiscal 2014 NextGen Facilities and Equipment (F&E) spending includes 25 funded line items, 15 of which either gain funding or maintain the level of fiscal 2012, the agency’s last full year of spending.

The Essential Air Service (EAS) program would receive a $246 million slice of Obama administration’s fiscal 2014 budget if the figures pitched today by the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) hold up, giving the program a 27% boost from 2012’s $193 million actual budget.

DOT proposed allocating $146 million in Airport and Airway Trust Fund-sourced discretionary appropriation and another $100 million in foreign carrier overflight fees to EAS.

The FAA today will mandate a Boeing-recommended fix to install new elevator components on all 737 Next Generation aircraft that addresses a problem linked to at least two instances of inflight elevator vibrations.

Citing the lack of injuries or deaths from wingtip collisions studied and a minuscule safety benefit, the FAA has rejected the NTSB’s recommendation to mandate additional anti-collision aids onboard aircraft.

The recent dip in of the average aircraft retirement age is an anomaly that will not alter benchmarks to determine aircraft lifespans, Boeing concludes in a new report.

Boeing’s conclusions mirror those recently issued by Avolon, a Dublin-based aircraft leasing company, which asserted that the rate of production for the new Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies would have a manageable impact on the retirement, valuation and placement of used single-aisle aircraft.

WASHINGTON - The U.S aviation maintenance industry significantly bolstered both its economic impact and total headcount in the last four years, reaching $47 billion in economic activity and 306,000 jobs in 2012, a new study commissioned by the Aeronautical Repair Station Association reports. (Photo: Pemco)

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